Mum sparks debate about what you can take from hotels – and not everyone agrees with her
A WOMAN has sparked a debate about the items guests are allowed to take from a hotel room.
While it is understandable that guests might want to take something from the hotel room as a souvenir, one mum wasn’t sure where the freebies began and ended.
In a post on Mumsnet, she wrote: “Pinching stuff from hotel rooms/villas, do you do it? Is it acceptable, is it illegal because I actually have no idea.”
The mum asked users if they would pinch toiletries such as bars of soap, shampoo, shower gel, rolls of toilet paper, towels or a dressing gown.
She wrote: “I’ve always taken the little bottles/soaps with me when I’ve left somewhere I’ve stayed and thought nothing of it but do people take more?”
Many replied by saying that they “don’t steal from hotels” – but users agreed that smaller items in the room were fair game.
One wrote: “The little shampoo bottles I would have taken as a little souvenir and had them in a basket in the bathroom.”
Another person added: “I would only take the mini toiletries and sometimes the tea bags and biscuits.”
While a third added: “Complimentary items such as biscuits and mini shampoos are free to take.”
Someone else said: “I wouldn’t take anything other than the plastic shower caps and I would eat the biscuits.”
But miniature toiletries, biscuits and tea bags are the only items guests felt comfortable cramming into their suitcase.
One person wrote: “Towels and [bath]robes they [the hotel] intend to keep are not [to be taken].
“Most places I’ve stayed in have taken a deposit and the cost of any missing items are taken out of the deposit.”
Other users agreed too, one added: “I would never take the robes or towels.”
Meanwhile Paul Bayliss, general manager of Hotel Brooklyn, told the Telegraph that “pens, pads and bath products are the norm” to be taken.
However, he explained the things that have surprised him: “We have also had some who have taken cushions, pictures, quilts and even mattresses and televisions.
Noel Gallager has admitted to thieving pillows from hotel rooms.
One general manager said their most hated guests are “those who steal the batteries out of the television remote control”.
Greedy travellers have been boasting about the outrageous items they steal from hotel rooms.